Chaos et Harmonia sunt Aeterna
by KeiGinya
Summary: Hermione Granger finds herself as an assistant to Lucrecia Crescent in Nibelheim, the only lead to how she got to Gaia years before: the Protomateria. There, she meets Vincent Valentine, whose future will be entangled with her own across worlds. FFVII/HP.


**Disclaimer:** I think it's pretty obvious I don't claim any legal rights to the respective franchises, considering I think Ron Weasley and Lucrecia Crescent abhorrent romantic partners.

Warnings: Um, I have watched the scenes in DoC but it's been awhile and I'm mostly using summaries online to jog my memory while writing this. Knowledge of Harry Potter books recommended. Potential OOCness. Eventual sex scenes (maybe; I'll just keep the rating M for now. We'll see).

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><p>Chaos et Harmonia sunt Aeterna<p>

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><p>Hermione kept her eyes closed, wind whipping around her as she rode the thestral (which she couldn't exactly see) making flying all the more terrifying despite equestrianism being the only 'sport' she actually enjoyed – not that the bony, tepid creature underneath her was anything like the late White Duke Eclair or his progeny. She had dreamt of a partition covered by black fabric made of air and whispers which contents she forgot amongst awaking; the sixteen year old didn't believe in the faulty arts of divination but it was a fact that the contents of the dream had disturbed her, causing her to wake up on the wrong side of the bed today, which seemed to preclude numerous events that ultimately led to a group of her friends heading to the Ministry of Magic because of a vision Harry had.<p>

The girl wondered how events seemed to culminate from yesterday, where Umbridge's tyranny caused Professor McGonagall to be in the hospital wing and Hagrid pretty much having had to escape Hogwarts. There was only the brief disturbance of the History of Magic OWL before Harry had almost crashed into Ron and herself not half an hour after the end of the exam, telling them of his vision about Sirius and, in his usual rashness, wanted to immediately head to save his Godfather. She had managed to convince him to try to confirm that Sirius really was in trouble first, only it led to them being captured by Umbridge. Harry had been about to be put under the Cruciatus Curse (which was part of the reason Hermione hadn't felt sorry for the toad-woman's fates in the end) when the sixteen year old had come up with a plan on the spot, partially because Hagrid and his brother had been on her mind from yesterday. One harrowing adventure in the Forbidden Forest later, Harry was convinced about not going to London alone and here she was, flying on an invisible steed she was still half-sure didn't exist.

"We're almost there!" who she thought was Harry exclaimed.

Bracing herself, she opened her eyes and straightened up into proper riding posture, her stomach dropping when she saw they were rapidly descending into the city darkened from the night. Hermione thought the metallic tang of Grawp's blood that had dried on her probably didn't help the nausea, but she didn't want to loosen her tangled fingers on the thestral's mane despite how the stiffened material of her shirt was very uncomfortably sticking to her skin; she probably wouldn't look out of place in a splatter film.

Ron uttered her sentiments of never flying a thestral again when the magical creatures dropped them in the empty street before disappearing to the sky again, felt by the harsh wind of their wings tossing curls into her face and the looks of Neville and Luna turned up to the sky. Hermione was distracted by the sight of dirt in her hair – completely disgusted when she realized it was blood.

"Come on!"

Harry made a b-line to the phone box that was the muggle London entrance for the Ministry, leaving Hermione to roughly gather her hair as the other four followed, walking as she removed a hair-tie from around her wrist and pulling her hair into a messy bun.

Somehow, all six of them managed to squeeze into the phone box, getting too familiar with some of the others in the process. As the telephone booth descended to the Ministry Atrium, Hermione started becoming anxious.

They were technically breaking into the Ministry of Magic, weren't they?

Somehow, the sight of the empty desk behind the ostentatious Fountain did not reassure her at all, palms turning sweaty in addition to her elevated heart-rate as she followed the others, Harry in the lead, to the elevator. They went down uninterrupted, all the way to the lowest floor. She had done enough research in Wizarding careers to know this was the playground for Unspeakables: the Department of Mystery.

Hermione followed Harry uneasily, staying in the background when they found themselves in a circular chamber with revolving walls and a dozen doors including the one they just went through. When the doors stopped spinning, the door they opened contained a large tank with floating brains; it hadn't been the room in Harry's dream.

At that point, Hermione stepped up with her wealth of knowledge and logic aiding the trio now turned group. As soon as the doors closed, before the room could start moving again, the sixteen year old cast, "Flagrate!" and marked the door they already checked with an X. She turned back to the others when the doors were shuffled again, "We can only go by process of elimination at this point; go on Harry."

The chamber had stopped rotating again, and Harry walked up to a random door and opened it before walking through. As soon as Hermione walked past the doorway, the brunette felt a chill – whether it was from the sudden whispered breeze or the sight of the veil of black smoke from her dream at the raised dais in the center of the room, she wasn't sure.

Her heart thudded in her ears as she was suddenly accosted by voices, like she was walking the streets of London during rush-hour instead of in an empty Ministry Department in the dead of the night, the organ going to her throat when she saw Harry walking the few steps up the dais to that ancient stone archway.

Hermione almost stumbled down the sunken room in her haste, stopping right before the first step of the center stage. Harry had, in the meanwhile, walked disturbingly close to the fluttering veil that covered the engraved archway – looking like a vertical pool in a basin.

She could barely hear her own voice amongst the murmurs as she called to her best friend, "Harry?"

"Do you hear it?" Harry distractedly commented.

"Hear what, mate?" Ron uneasily stared at the younger teen.

"Voices… I think there's someone on the other side…"

Hermione was surprised her heart hadn't burst out of her ribcage or head explode from the bombardment of voices – muffled by her heartbeat and fear. "Harry, let's go…"

Luna, standing next to the older girl, started toward the Veil, "It's the voices of the dead," she said in her usual disturbingly deadpan way.

The sixteen year old snatched the blonde by the arm to prevent the dotty girl from walking right through the archway; she didn't know what it was, only that just the sight of it brought a sense of dread that walking past that veil was the _last_ thing anyone wanted to do.

"Come on, let's go," Hermione started walking back to the opened door, her spirit nearly faltering when she saw Harry was still too curious over the Archway. There were just some things better left unknown. "Harry, we have to go save Sirius," it was a petty move (she still wasn't sure this wasn't just a Really Bad Idea) but her words seemed to bring the boy back into focus.

They left the room, Hermione almost breathing a sigh of relief when they closed the door, remembering to mark the door with another Flagrate – she definitely did not want to go into that room again.

The next room they chose after the room stopped spinning was locked. After watching Harry cast Alohomora and then use Sirius's present, sticking the knife blade into the lock and having the blade melt, Hermione spoke up, considering she knew a few more unlocking spells.

"Let me try," she bustled to the front, already running through the list of incantations and wand movements, Harry moving way for her easily.

She reached for the door knob and quickly jerked as she felt a spark run through the hand.

"Hermione?"

"Static," Hermione explained before grabbing the knob again and poking her wand tip a few inches away from the center, incanting the first spell. Fairly quickly, she ran out of spells to open the door that refused to budge. Frowning, she moved the hand not holding her wand to the wood of the door, laying her palm on the smooth material.

At first, she thought it was her own heartbeat pounding against her palm, until she realized the door was the one that was reverberating. Like a heartbeat. Like it was alive.

Correction: like what was behind the door was alive.

That realization caused Hermione's vision to fission while staring at her hand, pale against the dark wood. The edges of everything rippled with gold, pulsing to the even beat.

_Ssss-t. H—m-ny. Cos–os. Fzz—Chaos._

Hermione dropped her hand back to her side and blinked; this was the Department of Mysteries, alright. She lifted her wand and marked the wall around the doorway before turning around, pushing her uneasiness aside. "Let's try another door. We can get back to that one if none of the others are the right way," better to not open it if it can be helped, thought the pragmatic girl, the word 'Chaos' echoing in her mind as they moved to another door that thankfully opened.

They were lucky since Harry recognized the room, which items were themed around time, Hermione glancing at the rack of time-turners (mind momentarily cast back to third year) before turning to stare at a bell jar of a hummingbird that cycles through birth and flight over and over again. On the other end of the room of Time was another door, which Harry unerringly went through.

Her stomach flip-flopped as she looked at the sky-high rows of shelves filled with glass orbs and Harry announce this was the room, gripping her wand tighter as they walked to the row Harry saw Sirius at. Hermione had pretty much worked herself into a tizzy in what seemed like an endless trek to the correct row.

"H-he's not here," Harry broke the silence, looking around. He broke into motion, pointing at a spot on the ground, "Sirius, he was right here in my vision. Right here—"

The fifteen year old Gryffindor looked around them once more roughly running his free hand and mussing his bird's nest of hair even more. He closed his eyes so hard his brows furrowed before slumping slightly.

Turning toward her, Harry started, "Maybe you were right Hermione. Let's… just go ba—"

"Hey, Harry," Ron called, staring at the orbs in one of the shelves not that far away from where the younger teen stood, "This has your name on it."

Hermione felt her breath catch and heart stop; this felt like a trap, much like last year and Moody's 'convenient' actions. As soon as she focused again, after reviewing everything starting from when Harry had told them his vision about Sirius, the dark-haired boy was already reaching for it with his free hand.

"Harry," she started, "It might not be safe…"

But nothing happened when he grabbed the crystal ball – the earth didn't shake and alarms didn't suddenly blare to life. It was deathly silent as the five watched Harry holding the orb in his hand, not maimed or otherwise harmed.

"Very good, Potter. Now turn around, nice and slowly, and give that to me."

It was Lucius Malfoy and other Death Eaters, a dozen adults in all, one of them being Bellatrix Lestrange herself.

Hermione, never really one for these situations – though she somehow always found it happening to her thanks to her friendship with Harry Potter – embarrassingly froze. Her mind had ran through and discarded dozens of spells and plans during the entire confrontation between their two groups, keeping her eye reflexively on Harry since, while she faltered, her best friend seemed to shine during peril.

She just hoped Harry actually had a plan to get them out of this alive and well. Hermione was uncomfortably aware that, amongst the group of six Hogwarts students, she was the female 'Mudblood'. And she recognized one of them as a convicted, among other things, serial rapist – she thought his name was Mulciber something, not bothering to try too hard to differentiate him from his father considering current circumstances.

Thankfully, Harry did have a plan. As several glass orbs shattered from Bellatrix's deflected Stunner by Malfoy, the bespectacled wizard caught his friends' gazes pointedly. Lucius Malfoy started monologuing and Harry's free hand moved to behind his back as he counted down with his fingers. At his signal, Hermione cast a Reducto to the shelves and its fragile contents like the rest of the group before following Harry as he made straight for the Time Room.

Hermione spun around as soon as she made it past the door and slammed the door on the two Death Eaters faces before sealing the door with magic. She turned back to the room and saw only Neville managed to stay with Harry and herself, the others having had to split up.

Harry cursed when he opened the door to the revolving chamber and was nearly hit by a spell, moving back quickly as two Death Eaters came into the room.

"Stupefy!" Hermione shouted, heart racing, managing to hit one of the dark figures the same time Neville shouted a disarming spell to cover Harry, which managed to disarm both the Death Eater _and_ their friend, unfortunately.

Neville caught the two wands before aiming toward the rapidly approaching Death Eater, "Stupefy!"

His spell missed, the Death Eater showing surprising adroitness when he dodged, the Stunner hitting the rack full of time-turners and causing the devices to fall to the floor and shatter.

Hermione screamed as the man lunged for her, ducking under his arms before twisting and successfully stunning her attacker.

The sand from the time-turners whirled from the movement and slight draft from the open door, the trio staring in shock at Hermione's handiwork. The angle she had stunned the second Death Eater had caused the man's head to fall into the bell jar, which caused his head to turn into a wrinkled old man before morphing to a baby.

Hermione was gruesomely mesmerized for a moment, wondering how the Death Eater was able to live through that change while his body remained an adults. And, at that moment, the sand reached her, Hermione's eye widening as she accidentally inhaled and choked—

Back in the revolving chamber, the locked door pulsed.

In the room with the Archway, the veil fluttered and a voice was heard.

"Soul wrought of terra corrupt, quelling—"

_Child._

"—impurity, purging the stream—"

_Green._

"—to beckon forth the ultimate fate. Behold—"

_One. One. Two. One._

"—mighty Chaos—"

_Cosmos._

"—Omega's squire—"

_Chaoschaoschaos._

"—to the lofty heavens."

_Whole. Green. One. Oneoneone—_

Hermione suddenly crumpled to a carpeted floor, coughing so hard she felt like she was hacking up a lung. Beside her an orb roughly the size of a closed fist rolled a few inches, looking like a miniature galaxy captured within a sphere. In front of her, a few feet away, stood a surprised Grimoire Valentine, who was clutching the hand that previously held the Protomateria before it heated up and he had to let go.

A blinding flash later, a curly-haired young woman splattered with dried blood appeared in his office.

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><p>End notes: I'm pretty sure the title is grammatically correct since I'm using the plural neuter for Aeternus. The title could be translated several ways though so correct me if I'm wrong.<p>

Bother. I couldn't finished the next chapter of Bite To Eat in time so I'm posting this story up instead. It was supposed to be a long One- or Two-shot but… well, here's the beginning – let's hope it doesn't take me an eternity to finish it. And, as you can see, another black and red-wearing, gun-toting long-haired male vamp distracted me.


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